The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and vents His wrath against His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. Nahum 1:2-3
“God’s jealousy consumes, but it also redeems. Because He is jealous, He cares enough to redeem human beings out of their recalcitrant state. Because idolatry, covetousness, and brutality insult His honor, God shall destroy the wicked — and also save His rebellious people.
This twofold outworking of the jealousy of God explains the combination of contrasting attributes in God as depicted in the many passages that present His jealousy. He is jealous, full of wrath, and by no means will clear the guilty; yet simultaneously He is good, long-suffering, merciful, and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness, and forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
This combination of elements inherently provides a framework for understanding such comprehensive doctrines as the love of God in providing atonement for sin, the sovereignty of God in working salvation, and the inevitability of the final destruction of sinners.”
O. Palmer Robertson in The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) 61.
I have felt compelled by the Spirit this weekend to turn my attention back to my word for the year, abundance, in an unlikely place, the prophets, for the foreseeable future.
Nahum’s oracle proclaims that God’s jealousy for us drives Him to both consume and redeem us. While His people cannot help but fall into idolatry and covetousness, He remains abundant in long-suffering toward them. That’s generosity.
Stop and think about how much God loves you and me. For our sin we deserve death but He made a way for us to find life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This relates to generosity because He is gracious, slow to anger and forgiving.
Are you gracious, slow to anger, and forgiving in your giving? Perhaps the prophets are a great place to explore the generosity of God because it’s so distinctly Christian in nature. It’s lovingkindness extended to the undeserving.
Many people only direct giving to those they think are deserving. We should drop that term from our vocabulary. Realizing that God lavished forgiveness on us in an undeserving state, Christian generosity is doing the same to others.
Don’t do this because I say so. It was Jesus who said to love our enemies, forgive each other 70×7 times, and show mercy to others. Our jealous God saved us from idolatry and covetousness. We get to do the same for others. That’s generosity.